Acceptance In Jnana, Surrender In Bhakti

Acceptance is traditionally seen as a Jnana process, while surrender as a process in Bhakti. They however in essence mean one and the same thing. They really mean living in the present moment without being attached to anything – subjective or objective. I am sharing with you some small but insightful stories that beautifully illustrate this point.

A farmer lived in the days when fighting was going on between the small kingdoms in China. This farmer had a son who used to till the land with the aid of the horse. One day the horse ran away. The neighbours came and said, “It is a very bad thing. You have such bad luck.” The farmer said, “May be.” So the next day the horse came back with half a dozen other wild horses. The neighbours came again and said, “What tremendous luck.” So he said, “May be.” On the third day the son, while trying to ride one of the wild horses, fell and broke his leg. Again, the neighbours came and said what bad luck, and the farmer said, “May be.” The next day the king’s people came to recruit strong healthy farmers into the army.

When they found the farmer’s son with a broken leg they left him alone. So, again the neighbours came and said it wasn’t such a bad luck. The farmer said again, “May be.”

A Brahmin was having his bath in the river. Then he noticed a scorpion almost drowning. So he lifted the scorpion and put it on the ground. But before he could put it on the ground, the scorpion bit his hand. Many people were sitting around and some said to him, “What have you achieved? You have spared him only to get yourself bitten.” His answer was, “I did what I had to do according to my nature. The scorpion did what it had to do according to its nature.”

A rabbi who had the Understanding lived in a tiny room with no stools to sit on and a desk which served as his bed at night. Anybody who came to see him had to sit on the ground or stand to talk. One of his visitors said, “Rabbi, where is your furniture?” The rabbi said, “Where is yours?” The visitor replied, “I am only passing through.” The rabbi replied, “So am I.”

There was a saintly man, a Sufi. He lived his life quietly in his own small house. Then one of the neighbouring young women got pregnant and she gave birth to a child. Everyone wanted to know who the father was. She didn’t want to give up the name of her lover, so she gave the name of the Sufi. The community then insisted that the Sufi bring up the child. They came to him and he said, “All right, leave the child.” He brought up the child with all the care and love. Two or three years later, the mother relented and she was sorry. She and her lover got married and they confessed that the Sufi was not the father of the child. They went to the Sufi and said, “We are very sorry that we made this mistake. Please give us the child back.” He said, “Take it.”

Once a guru had a disciple with a great deal of understanding, but who put a great deal of importance in asceticism. The guru sent the disciple to King Janaka. The disciple arrived at the king’s court and found the king enjoying his entertainment. There was a feast going on, girls dancing, and everything that was, expected of a king. So this disciple said, “Why has my guru sent me here?” King Janaka said to him, “Go and rest for the night and I will talk to you in the morning. So the next morning as they started walking the disciple noticed a big fire in the quarters where he had spent the night. He said to the king, “Your majesty, There is a fire there.”The king said, “Yes. Let’s go on and talk. “They go a little further and the disciple says again, “There is a fire there!” And the king says, ”Yes, yes. Let’s talk. The disciple takes a few more steps and then he could not wait any longer. So he said, “Your Majesty, you may have many cloths, but my only other loincloth is in there.”